As a Patriots fan, I am a very lucky man.
Though the Patriots weren’t always the championship team I watched for two decades from the seats at Gillette Stadium, they still made it to the Super Bowl in 1986 and 1997, before beginning their epic run with Tom Brady in 2000.
And they went back to the Super Bowl last year, too.
I’ve watched my favorite team play in a dozen Super Bowls in my lifetime, which doesn’t feel like enough, but it’s more than any other team.
The Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars have never even made it to the Super Bowl. And the Lions are 30 years older than the Patriots, and the Browns are 16 years older.
It’s also been 57 years since the Jets appeared in a Super Bowl.
It’s been 30 years for the Cowboys.
49 years for the Vikings.
32 years for Buffalo.
31 years for the Chargers.
I could be a fan of one of those flailing teams, so I have a lot of reasons to feel grateful.
Yes, the Patriots had a 1-15 season in 1990, and we had some lean years in the worst stadium in the league, but today, New England boasts a beautiful stadium where six championship flags hang.
I should not complain.
However, I found a new way to suffer as a Patriots fan last night:
I watched my team throw away the chance to win with one of the dumbest passes I’ve ever seen to end a game, all while on a late-night flight from Hartford to San Francisco.
I know it doesn’t sound terrible, but watching your team lose in such a stupid fashion from the confines of an airplane, knowing that you still have more than four hours remaining on a flight that will have you landing at 2:30 AM your time, is not fun.
It’s awful.
I watched the Celtics win a playoff game on a plane once, but on that flight to Boston, the entire flight watched the game with me. It was like a watch party at 32,000 feet.
And the Celtics had the decency to win that game.
This time, on my connection from Atlanta to San Francisco, I seemed to be the only person watching the game. The man sitting beside me was scrolling on TikTok for the entire time, and many others were already asleep.
What were these people thinking?
At least I was sitting in first class. Small comfort for a terrible outcome, but still better than coach.
I woke up this morning in California to find text messages from my friends and fellow Patriots fans, Shep and Tony.
Nothing about the atrocity of last night’s game. Not a single word.
Instead, they were already planning the menu for the home opener against the Steelers.
Pulled pork. Mac and cheese.
I like the way they think.
Put that nightmare behind us and move on to the next game.
Go Pats.
